What's for dinner?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I don't think I've ever tried fresh artichokes, but I love the ones out of the can.  During the first part of this pregnancy, I craved them so much I ate a can/bottle at one go.  I'd like to try my hand at growing some one of these days.


Last night we ate at my dad's house.  My dad cooked supper.  It was Hamburger helper, canned spinach, and stove-top stuffing.   Not stuff I usually eat, and not stuff I should be eating with the blood sugar issues, but know better than to offend Dad about his cooking.  So, I just soaked it all in tabasco and chili peppers and ate it.  Today, I feel like processed food is coming out of my pores!  Gross! 

We're having grilled steaks, salad, and meokkuk (Korean seaweed soup, which is supposed to be good for pregnant women because it helps prevent blood clots.)

[nickolekidd]

hi guys,
I wanted to thank you all for your comments and sugestions I didnt make it back on here till today. we went to our property for the weekend it was great. I have tried hamburger helper and we are tired of it. I make spag. taco's, sloppy joes , shepards pie ect I was just looking for something diffrent. I also make hamberger peper gravy ( white gravy) and biscuts its pretty good. I my self feel that if I'm gonna eat beef I want steaks but cant always have them.
Thanks again...
Nickole

[Redoverfarm]

nickolekidd when Larry gets everything in ship shape on the property he can run a beef cow and you will have steaks & roast.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

hi guys,
I wanted to thank you all for your comments and sugestions I didnt make it back on here till today. we went to our property for the weekend it was great. I have tried hamburger helper and we are tired of it. I make spag. taco's, sloppy joes , shepards pie ect I was just looking for something diffrent. I also make hamberger peper gravy ( white gravy) and biscuts its pretty good. I my self feel that if I'm gonna eat beef I want steaks but cant always have them.
Thanks again...
Nickole

Nickole, I would get burned out on Hamburger Helper really quick too!  I had some at my dad's house for the first time in years the other day and it just didn't taste good at all to me.  To this day, my husband has a hard time eating goat meat because of our years of goat meat.  My dad butchered and gave us the meat, which was a lifesaver at the time, but we were kind of like the Israelites getting sick of manna, I guess.  It wouldn't have been  so bad, but since his BIL did the butchering for him, he just had him make it all ground meat because he could sneak it into anything.  My step-mom wouldn't eat it because she knew the goat, so we ended up with all but  a few packages of it.  Like I said, making it into sausage seemed to be one of the best things to do with it, and it was way less greasy than pork sausage.  I also made goat 'n' bean enchilada casseroles and froze them ahead of time for quick pop-in-the-oven dinners.  You might try stuffed peppers, too, with ground beef.  I used to tell DH that I had filet mignon taste on a ground goat budget.    

[Sassy]

That reminds me of the summer in Washington state when I took care of about 50 bunnies for some friends across the street.  They were going to be gone past the time when they should have been butchered so they told us to butcher them & keep the meat.  Well, after taking care of all the bunnies, then watching while they were killed & skinned...

Rabbit meat is really good, like the white meat in chicken - I made all different types of recipes for the meat & while it tasted good, after awhile, I couldn't eat it anymore...     But it sure did help out because we were pretty poor at the time.  She also had a great big garden I took care of & was able to harvest all the veggies - made one mistake, though...  picked a big pot of "green beans", fixed them with bacon & onion...  yummmm, one of my favorite dishes...  took a big bite - they were peas & the pods were totally stringy & tough - yuk, really ruined it...     Had my own garden & yard  I was taking care of at the same time & working fulltime - think I only had one kid at the time, don't remember... but I remember I was pretty busy taking care of the house, gardens, yards, kid, putting up all the produce, cooking... don't know how I used to do it...  guess I was younger then...   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Rabbit meat is really good, but I haven't had it in so long it would be practically a delicacy.  I like squirrel, too, but don't think my husband would eat it. 

I think tonight we're having hamburger patties and steamed broccoli, and some strawberries for everyone but me.  Doesn't matter because I'm not really even hungry anyway.

[glenn kangiser]

Had my mom and dad over this weekend.  Neither had eaten artichokes 83 and 76 -- 159 years of never having eaten an artichoke.  We cured that. We figure we will have around 20 per plant for 4 plants so far.

After dinner I put on my head light and went to the roof of the shop and picked fresh strawberries for dessert.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Those look so good!  Yum!

That long without eating an artichoke... what a life of deprivation.  What did they think?

[glenn kangiser]

The first night they thought they may be OK.  By the second night they liked them....or felt they better like them because as I was cooking they may not get anything else

Artichokes are on sale at the Supermarket  here now - two for $3.00 - more expensive than steak by weight?

[Drew]

Growing artichokes is about all Pacifica is good for.  My backyard is Milagra Ridge and it used to be an artichoke farm.

Well, we do okay with our potatoes and onions and salad greens.  The spinach is coming up too.  Mmm.  I'm getting hungry again.

I made dal (Indian lentils) last night and served it up tonight with brown basmati rice, salad, nectarines, and strawberries.  I'll be going off to my yoga class soon without Robin since she has a 4H County Council meeting tonight.

I was at a meeting one night where people were ragging on this guy.  He's a good guy, but loud and overly exuberant.  I could tell he was being cool about it but not enjoying it one bit.  I went over to him and said, "Mark, it has been my experience that all you have to do is pick one of them, beat the living $%*!! out of him, and the rest will leave you alone."  His shoulders receded from his ears and he was okay.

Namaste.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Turkey keilbasa and kraut for supper tonight.  And whatever else I can scrounge up.  Last night we had turkey burgers, steamed broccoli, and I had a few strawberries because they looked too good to resist!

[glenn kangiser]

The coast is a great place for artichokes -- I was really surprised they did so well here.

Yum - strawberries, Homey.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Yeah, but mine were from the store instead of the garden... they were good, but probably not as good as if we had just picked them from the yard.

[glenn kangiser]

Nothing like freshly killed strawberries.

I wonder if vegans worry about the death of vegetables? hmm , Drew?

[Redoverfarm]

Right now it is the death of the pocketbook. Planted new strawberry plants this year. Don't expect a whole lot from them the first year although they are growing and blooming.  In the meantime the wife just ordered a flat from the Carolinia's for $20.  4H fund raising thing. About the same as the grocery. Hope they taste better?

[Drew]

Any vegan who couldn't come to grips with a properly slaughtered squash has died of hunger.  I don't think you can make a diet of salt alone for long.

I may be a vegetarian, but I am no vegan.  I just had some Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey.  Some things are not negotiable.

Watch out for those 4Hers.  Some of them are backed by real sheisters.   

We were driving out near our place a while ago.  I can tell a horse from a mule from a donkey, but there was a new one on me standing out in a field."

"What is that?"  I said, "A burro?  What's a burro anyway?"

"It looks like a small burro," said Dan.

"It's a burrito," said Dave.

[glenn kangiser]

Good for you Drew -- Ice Cream -- I'm not quite as worried about you now.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

IMO, there are probably a lot of vegetarians who'd eat meat if they knew it was raised humanely and cleanly.  I had a friend who grew up on a dairy farm and wouldn't eat meat/dairy/eggs/etc. because of the way her folks ran the dairy.  (It was a modern factory-farm style dairy.)  Her folks thought she was nuts, but she just couldn't handle the fact that the animals were in confinement and not really allowed to be cows chewing their cuds out in the pasture.  I guess she assumed that ALL farming was done that way. 

In Everything I want to do is Illegal Joel Salatin tells a story about a vegetarian friend of his helping butcher chickens on his farm and then taking them home to eat and reintroducing meat into his diet because he could see that the way they farm was sustainable and clean.

[Drew]

I agree with you, HT.  I think a big part for a lot of vegetarians is the way the animals are raised, both in terms of humanity and sanitation.  The higher we eat on the food chain (and that includes processed foods), the greater our risk for unintended additives.

I've read a lot of Joel Salatin's books, including the one you mentioned.  I consider him a hero and had the privilege of meeting him when he came out to talk in Point Reyes.  A lot of what he says makes sense to me, and I like the work he does.

But I have a few other reasons for being a vegetarian.

1.  Even through I exercise every day and am at the right weight and body fat percentage, my total cholesterol is still between 20 and 40 points on the wrong side of borderline. It's a lot better than it was, but I can't get anywhere close to that if I eat meat.  I don't want to start taking Lipitor if there is something I can do to put it off for a while.  There's something about being beholden to a drug company that bothers me.  Maybe I'm not alone on this one.

2.  I feel better.  I have more energy and endurance.  Yeah, sometimes I hurt myself with that energy, but I'm learning (e.g., tools are your friends).  I used to feel slow after eating, and digesting seemed to take days.

3.  I get more variety.  It's paradoxical, but yeah.  I cut out meat and I get more variety in what I cook.  More Mexican and Indian cuisine.  The Italians know what to do, too.  Meat was pushing the creative stuff off the plate for me.

4.  I don't have to.  There are plenty of other things to eat before I have to get personal with another animal.  I won't starve to death with a steak in the room.  But I'm an omnivore; I have choices.

5.  It's not an efficient way to eat.  With 8:1 grain to meat ratios for cows and 2:1 for chickens, it doesn't scale.  I do appreciate the manure, though.  Still, I can grow green manure.

6.  It makes me more self-sufficient.  I can grow a greater proportion of my own food.  So far no one wants me to put a chip in my zucchini.

7.  There are fewer laws governing me buying vegetables and fruit from a farmer.  Farmers markets provide better value to consumers and more margin to the farmer, thereby stimulating the economy for local produce.  Most meat cannot be sold that way and must be presented to the market in ways that bleed off profits from the producers.

[glenn kangiser]

More like what's for breakfast today.

I picked more strawberries so we made strawberry sundaes with French vanilla ice cream over pound cake then topped of with a healthy slathering of whipped cream.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Glenn, I think you're trying to make us all jealous!  At least I CAN eat that now if I want to!

[Redoverfarm]

Glenn does that fall into the catagory of " Breakfast of champions".

[glenn kangiser]

Sorry the pix should have been better - playing with my new phone.

Yes - Homey - I am trying to rub it in.

John, obviously must be if I eat it.

[Redoverfarm]

No I meant "sassy".

[glenn kangiser]